* Crossposted in area MSGED_ECHO, PUBLIC_DOMAIN, NET_DEV, AMIGA, AUST_AMIGA, 
                       ZONE3_SYSOP, OS2PROG, FOURTH_REICH

MSGED 4.00 HAS BEEN RELEASED!

After LOTS and LOTS of hard work by Matthew Parker, Andrew
Clarke, myself, Bill Bond and David Begley, we now have a
new version of MSGED.  MSGED is the successor to MSGED/SQ
which is the sort-of successor to MSGED.  :-)  Read 
documentation for more details on the name!

This version has the following major technical breakthroughs:

1. DOS version that doesn't require assembler.
2. DOS-extended version.
3. DOS version compilable on a freely-available DOS compiler (Pacific C).
4. Amiga port.
5. Linux port.
6. QuickBBS (Hudson) messagebase support.
7. OS/2 16-bit compiles (again), although not with Squish support.
8. Decent area navigation, including cross-area reply.
9. ANSI screen I/O supported.
10. External editor allows paragraphing.
11. Four executables are now one.

The bad news:
The Amiga and Linux ports use the ANSI screen I/O in order to work,
rather than use native (and presumably faster) screen I/O.  The
reason for this is the lack of technical ability in that area by
me.  I am hoping that now that working versions exist on both 
platforms, that the Amiga + Linux community can "polish it up".
However, if there is no interest from those communities, the
executables will probably be dropped in the next version of
Msged (although you will probably still be able to compile from
the source yourself).  Hopefully it will instead be adopted by
the respective communities.

The neutral news:
Time again for a new MSGAPI38.ZIP, for anyone who wants to recompile
the source on DOS + OS/2.  The version of MSGAPI38 you need is dated
1996-07-24.  It is 300k in size.

The maybe good, maybe not so good news:
The official place to get the latest version of MSGED from is
  FREQ from 3:711/934 with magic name "MSGED".  At this instance
  in time, that will get for you MSGED400.ZIP, which is 800k.
If your name is Andrew Clarke, Bob Juge, David Blears or Daffy
  Duck, then you could try:
  http://rosebay.matra.com.au/~avon/
  then get really annoyed because that doesn't do anything useful,
  and then send hatemail to Andrew Clarke for making a complete
  stuffup of my home page (unless you ARE Andrew Clarke, then just
  chastise yourself).
If you live in Zone 1, TAKE A COLD SHOWER, wait a week, then try
  1:106/2000{at}fidonet or
  juge.com (/c/file/c, /os2)
  and when that doesn't do anything useful, pretend your name is
  Daffy Duck and see above.
If you live in Zone 3 and you don't live in the Australian (02)
  area code, then TAKE A LUKEWARM SHOWER, and fossick around a
  bit, trying to keep away from my home page (so that my ISP
  doesn't get the shits).  Best places to fossick are:
  http://snoopy.apana.org.au/randy/msged/  (this is the most
  official place on the internet to get msged) or
  www.closer.brisnet.org.au (/pdomain)
If you live in Zone 2, well, I can't think of everything.  Why
  don't you try Golded instead?
If you don't live in Zone 1, Zone 2 or Zone 3, well, you may as
  well live on Mars.
Apologies to anyone who lives somewhere that I can't pronounce.

Yes, I know the archive is big, but trust me, that's nothing 
compared to the 100? 200? man-hours spent on MSGED since
MSGED/SQ 3.35.  Yes, feel free to split it up into 27 different
archives yourself if you want - I don't want the admin hassle,
it's bad enough already.

Oh yeah, and for those who get the PDOMAIN TIC echo, it will be
hatched to that area immediately.

People who want to use the DOS-extended version might be interested
in FREQing DOS4GW.ZIP from me.  You don't need it unless you want to
use virtual memory.  You might want to obtain PMW122.ZIP too, if
you want to know more about the dos-extender being used.

BFN.  Paul.
@EOT:

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